Edward Challies

I am a human geographer and interdisciplinary governance researcher currently working on environmental governance (in the fields of water governance/flood risk management, agri-food systems, and forest carbon). I hold a PhD in Geography from Victoria University of Wellington (New Zealand), where I also obtained my MA (Geography) and BSc Honours (Geography/Environmental Studies).

As Senior Research Associate on the ERC-funded EDGE Project, at the Research Group Governance, Participation & Sustainability, my research is particularly concerned with the opportunities and pitfalls associated with participatory and collaborative environmental governance. In the context of EDGE, I am focused mainly on public and stakeholder participation in water resources management and flood risk management under the European Water Framework Directive and the EU Floods Directive respectively. This is examined via comparative case studies of river basin management planning and flood risk management planning in Germany, Spain and the United Kingdom.

As Adjunct Research Associate with the School of Geography and Earth Sciences at Victoria University of Wellington (2012-2015) I was Associate Investigator on the New Zealand Government / Marsden funded project ‘REDD+ and the new political ecology of forest protection in Indonesia’. This work focused on the political ecology of forest carbon projects, and the complex role(s) of non-state governing actors and hybrid modes of governance (including REDD+ finance and private forest carbon standards) in shaping Indonesia’s nascent REDD+ sector. This research examined emergent forest carbon commodity chains and networks as manifestations of market environmentalism.

Ongoing research and teaching interests beyond these projects include the governance of global agri-food chains and globally telecoupled systems (see GOVERNECT, our new DFG project on telecoupling), voluntary private sustainability standards, and rural environmental governance in New Zealand (especially in relation to irrigation, agriculture and freshwater governance).